Romney's Oakland County blues

11/12/12 5:35 PM EST

The Detroit Free Press captures Republican hand-wringing after another presidential loss in Michigan’s Oakland County, a one-time GOP suburban stronghold that again eluded the party’s grasp.

Without the county, the state’s second-most populous after Detroit’s Wayne County, Mitt Romney had no chance of carrying the state where he was born.

Locally, Oakland County voters gave Democrats four of the six countywide offices — prosecutor, treasurer, clerk and water resources commissioner — and successfully recalled Republican Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, a tea party supporter who was targeted after anti-gay comments and her promise to derail federal funding for a transit center in the city …

"I think it surprised a lot of people who didn't really recognize the county they thought they knew: We're not the rock-ribbed Republican stronghold that we were 20 years ago," [former Oakland County GOP chairman Paul Welday] said. "And look, we had six white guys running for the countywide offices. We don't always look and sound as much like the voters around us as we should.

"We've got to become more relevant to voters of all stripes."

The numbers back up Welday's assertion. Demographics helped push Oakland blue. As Detroit and Wayne County lost population, Oakland County's population grew more diverse, with the number of minority residents growing by nearly 10percent from 2000 to 2010, literally helping to change the face of the county's electorate.

Romney’s local connections make his 54-46 loss there an especially bitter pill to swallow — he grew up in Oakland County, and his father served as governor of Michigan.

While he ran 4 points ahead of John McCain’s pace in 2008, the fact that a candidate as well-suited for the area as Romney couldn’t win there is a telling sign of how damaged the GOP brand is in many of the Midwestern and Northeastern suburbs.

While exit polls report Romney carried the suburbs 50-48 overall, he still fell short in many of the populous suburban counties that reliably powered GOP victories for decades — places like Oakland County.